July Updates

This month has been absolutely insane.

--I finished my July editing job really early. It took ten days from start to finish (that's me doing the first edits, the author doing the revisions, and me reviewing the revisions and going over final questions).

--Hubby and I went apartment hunting, found an apartment we really liked, waited a weekend to find out if we were approved, were approved, and will be moving in about three and a half weeks. We're only moving about five minutes away, but this still requires packing. And organizing. And sorting. And more packing. I started sorting my kids' toys today. One of my cats had a blast jumping in and out of the empty toy drawers I had spread across the living room floor. Entertainment for kitties = win.

--I revised one of my manuscripts completely in twenty-four hours. This meant changing plot elements, writing new things, cutting other things, etc. It's funny how you can change one thing and then realize that changes four other things, and you have to keep tweaking threads until they all connect again. It was a lot of fun, though. :D It took me weeks to decide to take this particular plunge, and I wasn't sure I would happy with it, but I really, really am.

--I went shopping for my kids' homeschool books. I think I'm pretty much set for the coming school year.

--I'm still writing Rising Book 2: Rebellion. I have (I think) about eight and a half chapters left to write. Considering that this book is now clocking in at...134,306 words, and I've already written nineteen and a half long chapters and twenty-eight shorter flashbacks, that's really not a huge amount left. I cannot begin to express how excited and relieved I will be when this book is done. Well, at least written. Of course there will be editing and running it through the critique partner gauntlet and all that stuff, but at least the story will be complete. Oh, and it has a Goodreads page now!

--The weeks have flown by so fast and I realized I neglected to properly thank a couple of people for awards I got.

First, thank you to Christine Rains for The Booker Award.

The rules for this award:

This award is for book bloggers only. To receive this award the blog must be at least 50% about books (reading or writing is okay)
Along with receiving this award, you must also share your top five favorite books you have ever read. (More than five is okay) You must give this award to 5-10 other lucky book blogs you adore.

 Here are my favorite books:

1. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

2. Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

3. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

4. My Fair Godmother and My Unfair Godmother by Janette Rallison

5. The Giver by Lois Lowry
6. The Only Alien on the Planet by Kristen D. Randle
7. Into the Dream by William Sleator
8. The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede

There are so many bloggers I adore, and I'm so behind on this award that I'm not sure who's received it and who hasn't--so I'm going to just say that if any of you haven't received it and want to talk about your favorite books, have at it!

Next, thank you to Deirdra A. Eden for the Creative Blog Award.

And finally, thank you so much to T. Drecker for the Fabulous Blog Ribbon Award.

And this one has some questions:

Name five of your most fabulous moments, either in real life or in the blogosphere.

- marrying my husband

- having my children

- going to Mexico to help build houses and meeting some of the most amazing kids there

- moving back to the south after three and a half years in the north

- meeting my writing partners in person for the first time

Name five things you love.

- God

- my family

- my friends

- my cats

- it's a toss up between coffee and socks. Although this is definitely a "like" kind of love and not a "I'm very fond of my cats" love or a "I desperately love God and my family and friends" love.

Name five things you hate

- seeing the people I love hurt

- people chewing in my ear

- throwing up

- the smell of dog poo
- most horror movies




I will try to come back very soon with something more than a giant update on everything. O_o But for now, I hope you all have a FANTASTIC weekend!!